NEW YORK -- Fire swept through a three-story apartment building early Saturday, killing five people, injuring a dozen others and forcing some residents to climb out windows to safety, fire officials said. The cause of the fire, reported just before 5:30 a.m., was under investigation, but "anytime you have a fire at this hour of the morning with that advanced state upon arrival, it's suspicious," fire Chief Frank Caruthers said. Four adults and a child died, and three firefighters were among the 12 people injured, Caruthers said.

A Coleman man demonstrating to two friends that his handgun was not loaded fatally shot himself Monday in the back seat of a car.Lestettis Regual ''Jimmy'' Caruthers, 27, died at 8:45 p.m. from a single gunshot wound to the head.The incident started early Monday night when Caruthers began partying with friends Elizabeth Singleton and her boyfriend, Marcus Mitchell, in Wildwood.Hours later, they were heading toward Bushnell because Caruthers had to meet someone. He used a cellular telephone to call and make sure his friend would be home when the group arrived.

WILDWOOD -- Authorities evacuated residents from about 50 homes near Wildwood on Thursday after they found a stolen tanker-trailer of ammonia in the area, authorities said. Sumter County Sheriff's Office spokesman Lt. Bobby Caruthers said no ammonia is leaking, but because of its potential as an explosive, authorities ordered the evacuation as a precaution. The tanker was stolen from a nearby farm, Caruthers said, where it had been sitting in the middle of a field. The ammonia was used as weed spray.

WEBSTER - No firearm was found during a meticulous search of South Sumter Middle School after a student reported seeing someone with a gun, deputies said. "We never did find any handgun in the school," Sumter County sheriff's said Lt. Bobby Caruthers said. The school was locked down about 10 a.m. Thursday, deputies said. The student was walking past a group of students between first and second period when she saw one of them with what looked to be a gun and reported it to school officials, according to Caruthers.

THE VILLAGES — A 61-year-old woman was bewildered to find out the couple she invited to stay in her home in this retiree haven was cooking meth in the garage, according the Sumter County Sheriff's Office. The woman had no idea Robert Huot, 34, and his 25-year-old girlfriend, Ashleah Hyder, were running a meth lab at the home in the mammoth community northwest of Orlando, sheriff's spokesman Lt. Bobby Caruthers said today. Deputies on Wednesday found methamphetamine oil and other chemicals and equipment needed to cook the drug stored in the garage, he said.

Sitting barefoot on a sofa next to a Christmas tree in a modest Roxbury, Mass., apartment on Saturday, one of the nation's youngest accused drug dealers, a 9-year-old boy, told why he decided to sell crack cocaine.''They paid me money to do it,'' he said as he shuffled some poker cards and kicked at a calendar that was hanging on the tree.Asked how much the drug suppliers paid him, he responded, ''They paid me once. I made enough to get something to eat.''On Thursday night, the boy became the youngest person arrested on drug charges in Boston this year.

THE VILLAGES -- Police are looking for a suspect in the robbery of the Wachovia Bank branch on U.S. Highway 27/441 in The Villages on Friday afternoon. A man walked into the bank about 4 p.m. and gave a teller a note implying he had a weapon, said Lt. Bobby Caruthers, spokesman for the Sumter County Sheriff's Office. The teller handed over money, and the man walked out. Two customers were in the bank during the robbery. Nobody was injured, Caruthers said. Investigators described him as about 25 to 30 years old and about 6-foot-2.

WILDWOOD -- A Wildwood man was killed and another was injured in shootings near County Road 213 and C.R. 238 on Thursday night. Lt. Bobby Caruthers said Tremayne Bailey, 28, was shot about 10:45 p.m. in the left arm and left hip. He was taken to Leesburg Regional Medical Center, where he died. Karon Turner, 21, was shot in the upper torso. Turner, who was shot in the same neighborhood in 1999, was airlifted to Orlando Regional Medical Center, where he was listed in stable condition. "We're trying to determine right now whether they shot each other or whether there was a third party involved," Caruthers said.